In the week following the announcement that MGM and SciFi Channel were pulling the plug on "Stargate: Atlantis," those who choose to illegally download television programs thought it would give it a nod.
TorrentFreak is reporting that "Atlantis" was the most pirated television show for the week of of Aug. 17-24, unseating the Olympics opening ceremony and "Weeds" as the most popular show downloaded by BitTorrent users. It previously filled the No. 6 position, which was taken over by USA Network's "Burn Notice" instead.
The site didn't report the number of downloads, but said larger network shows like "Lost" and "Heroes" can get up to 10 million downloads in a single week when they are showing new episodes. However, by the site's own lists, the show to get the most downloads in a single episode in 2007 was "Heroes" with just 2.4 million downloads. Site owners explain that those download numbers are from Mininova, and only represent a fraction of the overall downloads.
Also on TorrentFreak's top downloads list was SciFi Channel's "Eureka" in the No. 3. slot.
"Heroes" was the top downloaded show in 2007 with 2.4 million downloads of its most popular episode. "Battlestar Galactica" was third with one episode earning 706,000 downloads ahead of "Lost," which had 705,000 downloads of its most-watched episode. "Dexter" was ninth with one episode earning 435,000 downloads, according to Mininova.
Airlock Alpha points out that downloading shows through unofficial means is illegal, and does cost studios -- and those who create such programming -- money. TorrentFreak says it releases such data to explain to the entertainment industry how it needs to embrace technology to compete with piracy rather than fighting those who pirate videos, or provide the means to do so.
"Stargate: Atlantis" was canceled Aug. 20, and will finish its fifth season before moving on to direct-to-DVD telemovies like its predecessor, "Stargate: SG-1."
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Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha and the entire BlipNetwork. He owns Quantum Global Media Inc., the parent corporation of the BlipNetwork. He's a print journalist by day, and lives in Tampa, Fla.
